Day: October 9, 2018

Unable to mobilise electoral support, Kashmir’s civic poll candidates on Monday managed to draw a dismal 8.3 per cent turnout during the first leg of the elections in the region. “It wasn’t even a trickle,” remarked an Independent candidate who was in fray for the civic polls in north Kashmir’s Baramulla. The ward he was contesting from had a total of 1,006 votes. His wife, his polling agent and the candidate himself made up the only three votes that were cast on Monday. Unable to mobilise electoral support, Kashmir’s civic…

BJP Lotus to bloom in Kashmir? Srinagar: It is a ghost election with secret candidates and invisible voters. Even before tomorrow’s first phase of polling for Urban Local Bodies, the BJP has already got seven municipal committees in the Kashmir Valley. The party says its 75 nominees have been elected unopposed. 60 percent of 600 municipal wards in 10 districts of the Valley have either a single candidate getting elected unopposed or they remain vacant in the absence of any candidate at all. The civic elections are being boycotted by…

Most polling stations in Kashmir wore a deserted look on the first day of Urban Local Bodies (ULB) polls on Monday as majority of people in Srinagar and other areas stayed away from voting. The ULB polls are being held in the State including for Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) after a gap of 13 years. In the first phase of ULB polls, most polling stations were seen empty. All four polling stations at Government Boys Higher Secondary School, Humhama which falls in ward 16, were empty and only nine votes…

At least 45 out of 49 wards didn’t witness any voting in the first phase of urban local body elections in twin districts of Kulgam and Anantnag in southern Kashmir on Monday, as contestants were either elected unopposed or there were no contestants at all. According to an official source, in the four wards of municipal committee Kokernag, where the election was conducted amid tight security, only 119 out of 1662 cast their vote, with three wards witnessing just a little over 2 percent turnout. Elsewhere, candidates were either elected…

At the end of the polling day on Monday this BJP candidate standing from Bagh-e-Mehtab here knew he had won the election to the ward, even though results of multi-phased civic polls are far away. Ecstatic, Bashir Ahmad Mir broke the news of his “victory” over phone to his family. “Don’t worry. The election is over. I have won,” Mir announced, visibly thrilled. As first phase of election to urban local bodies was held across Jammu and Kashmir, Mir stood outside the polling center set-up inside a community hall, eagerly…

Amid heavy security and looming militant threat, the first phase of polling to 30 urban local bodies in Jammu and Kashmir were conducted peacefully on Monday, even as the Kashmir region recorded an abysmally low voter turnout. While the Jammu and Ladakh region recorded a turnout of 65%, only 8.2% votes were cast in the Kashmir region in the first of the four-phase polls held after 13 years. The overall turnout was 56.7% and, barring one incident, was conducted peacefully, said the state information department in a statement. The regions…